When real life gets you down...

This past year has been a whirlwind of highs and huge lows, for someone with bi-polar there have been a couple of occasions when I have really had to fight as hard as I could to make sure I maintained my mental health as best I could and luckily (touch all of the wood in the house) I seem to have survived it much more unscathed than I would have thought possible.

I think I possess this wonderful ability which I've been cultivating since I first read The Secret in early 2008, I'd launched my business on June 22nd 2007 and I'd been lucky enough to shoot some weddings in the first 6 months, I duly raised my prices and work failed to come in...at all, my first winter in business and also Pauls first winter as a gardener and I'm not ashamed to admit that I remember one particular week when we had £30 and that was before we bought food for us all, when we both went into business on the same day at the same time we didn't feel we had anything to lose and we were incredibly green and wild eyed in our assumptions so I found myself at the end of January 2008 wavering on depression, I asked for some advice and a fellow photographer (who shall remain nameless) told me in no uncertain terms that I should just give up now, there was nothing good about my work and he was only telling me to be helpful and straight down the line.  I don't quite know how it happened though, someone pointed me towards the Secret and at the start of February 2008 I gave my vow of absolute positivity to the universe and I can honestly say it's changed my life.

You may not believe in The Secret or its teachings, you may think that the laws of attraction are all complete bunkum but never question the fact that being positive even in the face of much adversity is a life saver and I think we all know by now I have been at the face of adversity many many times in the last 8 years but I am so proud to say that my business will be 8 whole years old on the 22nd June 2015, I think I may need to celebrate for still being here and retaining some kind of sanity. 

My business has been the one constant in a world of change and it's given me something to focus on even in the toughest times.  i'm not ashamed to say that when Paul left I lost my zest and love for the business I'd curated and built with such passion but I'm happy to say that I rediscovered my love, just like falling in love over again with a person I fell in love with my business again, I saw it with new eyes and renewed passion and it's changed the way I do things ultimately for the better.  I'm still rebuilding my wedding photography business, I know these things take time because you're always booking a year or more in advance but I know I'll get there and my portraiture business just goes on to grow and thrive with every day as does my blog, this place where I mind dump and write with passion and love and sometimes with questions or even moments of anger, this wonderful outlet I have is read by sometimes nearly 20,000 people in a month, that is a crazy sounding figure, can you imagine if you were all in a room together (having cake, obviously)?  That would be quite a party!  I also recently became a director of The Inspire Network, the amazing NE network of over 4500 entrepreneurial women and I continue to be a mentor for Virgin Startup.  So when I do get down, I remind myself of just how much achieved, gone is the woman who once stood in the street with no shoes not even understanding where she was and for that I'll always be truly thankful.

I want to finally just say one thing, if you are my friends, my clients, my future clients, a regular blog reader or a first time reader today (hello you!) then thank you because I couldn't do any of it without you!

Until Monday you can purchase a voucher valid for 12 months for a 1 hour photo shoot with 12x8 print for only £25 instead of £40, just drop me an email and I'll sort that out for you.